Ever felt like you’re surrounded by the enemy? Ever felt like the odds are stacked against you? How do you handle it? Do you throw a tantrum? Do you sulk? Do you go into depression? Do you seek comfort in substances?

Maybe your boss just called you into his office and gave you the spiel, “I hate to do this but I have you let you go”

Maybe that lump you thought was nothing turns out to be cancer.

Maybe you find a packet of Crystal-Meth in your teenager’s bedroom.

Or maybe you are hit with the tsunami of negative situations when all three of these type of things hit you at once!

Faith speaks! What comes out of your mouth will help you or hinder you. If you are a person of faith, this is what will happen to you. Bad news arrives. You react as any human would through disbelief, shock, panic, fear and disappointment. Then after a short period of time you get into gear and you say, “God is able! He will help me. I believe that the Lord is on my side!” Your situation will turn around after some time. It may be a short time or a long time. Through the experience you will be a better stronger person.

When you are not a person of faith this is what will happen to you. You get bad news. You react like any other human would through disbelief, shock, panic, fear and disappointment. You then spiral down wards into the blame game, whose fault is this anyway? Or you may throw a tantrum and let anger take over hurting people with your words or fists, or punching walls or other defenceless objects. Then you may seek to justify your problems by giving yourself permission to act outside your own values by gambling, drinking or taking substances. Your end position is less than your starting point.

Bible stories are great. They make for great reading, but also we can learn from them. God placed them in the bible for us. They are true stories and they are written down to help us, to teach us how to live and how God works with people. 1 Corinthians 10:11(AMP)

11 Now these things befell them by way of a figure [as an example and warning to us]; they were written to admonish and fit us for right action by good instruction, we in whose days the ages have reached their climax (their consummation and concluding period).

20 After this, the armies of the Moabites, Ammonites, and some of the Meunites declared war on Jehoshaphat. 2 Messengers came and told Jehoshaphat, “A vast army from Edom is marching against you from beyond the Dead Sea. They are already at Hazazon-tamar.” (This was another name for En-gedi.)

3 Jehoshaphat was terrified by this news and begged the Lord for guidance. He also ordered everyone in Judah to begin fasting. 4 So people from all the towns of Judah came to Jerusalem to seek the Lord’s help.

5 Jehoshaphat stood before the community of Judah and Jerusalem in front of the new courtyard at the Temple of the Lord. 6 He prayed, “O Lord, God of our ancestors, you alone are the God who is in heaven. You are ruler of all the kingdoms of the earth. You are powerful and mighty; no one can stand against you!

15-24 15 He said, “Listen, all you people of Judah and Jerusalem! Listen, King Jehoshaphat! This is what the Lord says: Do not be afraid! Don’t be discouraged by this mighty army, for the battle is not yours, but God’s. 16 Tomorrow, march out against them. You will find them coming up through the ascent of Ziz at the end of the valley that opens into the wilderness of Jeruel. 17 But you will not even need to fight. Take your positions; then stand still and watch the Lord’s victory. He is with you, O people of Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid or discouraged. Go out against them tomorrow, for the Lord is with you!”

18 Then King Jehoshaphat bowed low with his face to the ground. And all the people of Judah and Jerusalem did the same, worshiping the Lord. 19 Then the Levites from the clans of Kohath and Korah stood to praise the Lord, the God of Israel, with a very loud shout.

20 Early the next morning the army of Judah went out into the wilderness of Tekoa. On the way Jehoshaphat stopped and said, “Listen to me, all you people of Judah and Jerusalem! Believe in the Lord your God, and you will be able to stand firm. Believe in his prophets, and you will succeed.”

21 After consulting the people, the king appointed singers to walk ahead of the army, singing to the Lord and praising him for his holy splendor. This is what they sang: “Give thanks to the Lord; his faithful love endures forever!”

22 At the very moment they began to sing and give praise, the Lord caused the armies of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir to start fighting among themselves. 23 The armies of Moab and Ammon turned against their allies from Mount Seir and killed every one of them. After they had destroyed the army of Seir, they began attacking each other. 24 So when the army of Judah arrived at the lookout point in the wilderness, all they saw were dead bodies lying on the ground as far as they could see. Not a single one of the enemy had escaped.

Think about King Jehoshaphat in this story. He is surrounded! He is hopelessly outnumbered. In verse 3 it says he is terrified! Three armies surround him and his nation of Judah.

It’s not fair!

He has a go at God here. He says in verse 10-11, Hey God you didn’t let us invade these nations when Israel journeyed through their lands, now they have come back to attack us. It’s not fair!! In life we are very often in the situation where it doesn’t seem fair. Strangely it doesn’t seem to make any difference to anyone or anything that we point that out!!

The King’s reaction

The king reacts really well. He goes straight to God in prayer. He says it’s time to fast and seek God. He reminds God of His promises.

The man of God speaks.

In verse 14-15 the prophet stands up to speak. It’s OK he says, God is with us! Don’t be afraid. The battle is the Lord’s. Go down to them. That’s fine for you to say but we could get killed!! How do you react to the words of the man of God?

The King’s reaction again.

King Jehoshaphat bows down, the people fell down and worshipped, the Levites (priesthood) praised the Lord. That’s a faith response. What is your response to the words from the man of God? Don’t go asking the unbelievers for advice. They have no idea how God can work in a situation. They will take you down the pub, that’s no answer.

When the man of God speaks you have a choice. Will you believe? The King gives some great advice. 2 Chron 20:20 (NLT) Early the next morning the army of Judah went out into the wilderness of Tekoa. On the way Jehoshaphat stopped and said, “Listen to me, all you people of Judah and Jerusalem! Believe in the Lord your God, and you will be able to stand firm. Believe in his prophets, and you will succeed.”

So here’s the plan, the army marches out and the singers go in the front. Anyone feeling vulnerable? This is what they sang, Give thanks to the Lord; his faithful love endures forever! That is faith speaking right there! The result was the Lord set ambushments against the three invading armies.

It matters what comes out of your mouth. This is not conventional warfare. Faith speaks! What does faith say?

Thanks God!

God is good!

He is able!

When you’re feeling overwhelmed, what is coming out of your mouth?

We all face tough times, but God is with us and how we respond to troubles will block or enable faith to make a way for God to help us. God reacts to faith, not to complaining. Our task this year is to grow in faith so that means we will need to learn how to respond in faith. That is why we need to learn that FAITH SPEAKS!

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. Describe the feeling of being overwhelmed.

2. How does God feel when you are overwhelmed?

3. When circumstances are against you what usually come out of your mouth?

Imagine the beginning of time when God created the heavens and the earth.

Gen 1:1 NLT In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.

3 Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good. Then he separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light “day” and the darkness “night.”

And evening passed and morning came, marking the first day.

6 Then God said, “Let there be a space between the waters, to separate the waters of the heavens from the waters of the earth.” 7 And that is what happened. God made this space to separate the waters of the earth from the waters of the heavens. 8 God called the space “sky.”

And evening passed and morning came, marking the second day.

9 Then God said, “Let the waters beneath the sky flow together into one place, so dry ground may appear.” And that is what happened.

20 Then God said, “Let the waters swarm with fish and other life. Let the skies be filled with birds of every kind.

24 Then God said, “Let the earth produce every sort of animal, each producing offspring of the same kind—livestock, small animals that scurry along the ground, and wild animals.”

As you can see when God speaks things happen!

God creates things simply by speaking, He operates in faith voicing His will and purpose and His words convey the power necessary to create what He speaks. In Hebrews this verse describes who Jesus is.

Heb 1:3 AMP He is the sole expression of the glory of God [the Light-being, the out-raying or radiance of the divine], and He is the perfect imprint and very image of [God’s] nature, upholding and maintaining and guiding and propelling the universe by His mighty word of power. When He had by offering Himself accomplished our cleansing of sins and riddance of guilt, He sat down at the right hand of the divine Majesty on high,

Now consider that God has created man to be like Himself, made a little lower than the angels (Ps 8:5) yet truly a little lower than God. Man made a spirit being after the image and likeness of God and called to Subdue, replenish the earth and fill it. (Gen 1:28) Are we not to create also by our words? Has God not spoken to us about using our words to create and change things?

Consider Jesus commands to His disciples. Mark 11:23 AMP Truly I tell you, whoever says to this mountain, Be lifted up and thrown into the sea! and does not doubt at all in his heart but believes that what he says will take place, it will be done for him.

The power of your words is through a believing heart. Rom 10:9-10 ESV 9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

And again Jesus says, for out of the abundance (overflow) of the heart his mouth speaks. (Luke 6:45 amp)

I think perhaps we have failed to realise the power in our words as born again believers. The Church is the assembly of those Born again, born of the incorruptible seed of the word of God, born from above, who are called now to subdue fill the earth and conquer it. Jesus gave us the example when He spoke to the man with the withered hand, “Stretch forth your hand.” The command to do the impossible, followed by a miracle. Later Peter James and John enter into the same experience saying to the cripple at the gate Beautiful in Acts 3, “Rise up and walk!” And he did!

Just simply saying these words conveyed the power necessary to create a miracle. However, not words only but a believing heart expressed through those words.

In fact, now that we are born again and living in right relationship with God, He expects of us to live at a higher level of revelation and power. Jesus had high expectations of His disciples as He instructs them, “I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, if anyone steadfastly believes in Me, he will himself be able to do the things that I do; and he will do even greater things than these, because I go to the Father.” (John 14:12 amp)

As believers we pray now not so much prayers of supplication, “God will you do this and that.” But prayers of declaration, “Be healed, in Jesus Name.” If we are to do the works of Jesus and greater then we will need to do those works as He did them by speaking the miracle, by declaring the outcome we want to see because we have faith in our heart and we speak words of creative power from our mouth.

One of my earliest examples of using this kind of praying was as a new Christian I drove past an old picture theatre every day on my way to Uni and this theatre showed pornographic movies. As a new Christian I was incensed that this filth was pouring into the community so I cursed the picture theatre and a few days later it burned to the ground in the middle of the night with no loss of life. I was shocked by the power of my words and a bit scared about the responsibility of how we should use this power.

Mostly we use this power to bring about healing, life and answers. There are thousands of cases of where we have prayed and spoken words of faith to command sickness to leave, pain to go, tumours to disappear and have seen many many healing miracles. We declare answers for peoples’ lives as they experience trouble and difficulties. When a couple faces marriage stress we pray life and peace over that marriage, when a person goes though financial hardship we declare the blessing of God over them. Answers come through the application of God’s word through a faith filled heart.

If you want to know whether you have a faith filled heart, just listen to what comes out of your mouth. If the words coming out of your mouth are filled with despair and negativity, then fear and doubt are filling your heart, but if the words coming out of your mouth are speaking the answer and speaking the miracle outcome you seek then you know your faith is at work. Don’t wait for some feeling of faith to roll up and bite you! You may feel overwhelmed at the start when things go wrong, but faith doesn’t look at feelings and circumstances, faith looks at what God’s word says. We must emulate God in calling those things that are not as though they already are. (Rom 4:17)

You can pray reactive prayers that address problems that arise, but are we praying prayers of declaration that are aimed at creating a better future for us and for God’s purpose. Add to you prayer life, after praying for the miracles to overcome present problems, the declaration of the better future that you want to see.

Right now in this church we need to see an increase in financial flow. So this is what I pray: The Lord bless you and watch, guard, and keep you; The Lord make His face to shine upon and enlighten you and be gracious (kind, merciful, and giving favour) to you; The Lord lift up His [approving] countenance upon you and give you peace (tranquillity of heart and life continually). And they shall put My name upon the Israelites, and I will bless them. (Numbers 6:24-27 AMP)

Jabez cried to the God of Israel, saying, Oh, that You would bless me and enlarge my border, and that Your hand might be with me, and You would keep me from evil so it might not hurt me! And God granted his request. (1 Chronicles 4:10 AMP)

And he shall be like a tree firmly planted [and tended] by the streams of water, ready to bring forth its fruit in its season; its leaf also shall not fade or wither; and everything he does shall prosper [and come to maturity]. (Psalm 1:3 AMP)

FAITH SPEAKS #1AM Following the death of a member of our community; let me share with you all about how to grieve and how to comfort others who are grieving. Grief is a normal human process we will all go through at some point in our lives. When we are grieving we may feel a wide range of emotions from sadness to anger, to resentment to depression to acceptance. You can’t hurry the grieving process, it takes time, but you can comfort one another and pray for one another. Jesus is the one who heals the broken-hearted. As Christians we have a huge advantage over non-Christians because we have hope. Our faith is enables us to see that the loved one is now comforted and at peace. For our loved one who dies in the Lord we know that there is no more sickness and pain is gone and they are rejoicing in the presence of God with total joy and life and peace. Not only that, but we know we will see them again when we pass from this life. We grieve because of loss but there is hope which gives us very real comfort. Grief is helped by being together and supporting one another. Grief is made harder by isolation. The human touch is vital. How do talk to someone who is grieving? If someone has lost a loved one you may feel like you don’t know what to say. You may be afraid to say something that makes the person feel worse or reminds them of the loss and so you may be tempted to not approach or not say anything. Here’s what God says to do: Rom 12:15 AMP Rejoice with those who rejoice [sharing others’ joy], and weep with those who weep [sharing others’ grief]. When you see someone in grief, at your earliest opportunity, go to them and be present. Minister the appropriate touch, which may be a hug, a kiss on the cheek, clasping hands, a touch of your hand on their shoulder. For close friends just holding a person can minister tremendous comfort. The words we can share are, “I love you. I care about you. I’m here for you. I’m sad because you are sad.” Probably avoid the obvious clichés like, “At least they are in heaven now. You’ll get over it. There’s better days ahead.” It helps to say sweet memories of the person who has passed, remembering beautiful times and funny times you had with them. For those who are not close friends we can add comfort by just saying, “I’m very sad for your loss, I will be thinking about you and praying for you.” Can we spend some time just now greeting one another and praying for each other. Some will want to give a hug and comfort to someone who is grieving. Others may be content to just chat to each other. This morning we begin our theme of Faith Speaks. Faith has got something to say. It’s not timid, it’s not shy, its’ not weak, it’s strong, and it’s passionate and it’s alive. The scripture teaches that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. Faith is convinced! Faith knows that the word of God is true! Faith doesn’t wait for conditions to improve to say what it wants to say. Faith lives in the future of answered prayer. Oh how we wish that life had no pain. But without pain there is no cry for help and there would be no finding of the answer. Into every life comes tragedy and heartache. Faith has something to say about that too. Psalm 61:2 AMP From the end of the earth will I cry to You, when my heart is overwhelmed and fainting; lead me to the rock that is higher than I [yes, a rock that is too high for me]. Faith isn’t always saying, today is a great day, today I am a winner. Some days are dark days, but faith has something mighty to say of those day days. Faith says, “my God is with me, He is able when it all gets too much for me.” This week at HUB the leaders have been praying through Psalm 18. Let me encourage you to pray through this psalm. In this Psalm David who is yet to become King over Israel, is running from King Saul and from the Philistine enemies. He has been pursued and nearly dies his friends are few and treacherous! But he has one great friend. Listen to David’s prayer. Psalm 18 AMP 2 The Lord is my Rock, my Fortress, and my Deliverer; my God, my keen and firm Strength in Whom I will trust and take refuge, my Shield, and the Horn of my salvation, my High Tower. 3 I will call upon the Lord, Who is to be praised; so shall I be saved from my enemies. 4 The cords or bands of death surrounded me, and the streams of ungodliness and the torrents of ruin terrified me. 5 The cords of Sheol (the place of the dead) surrounded me; the snares of death confronted and came upon me. 6 In my distress [when seemingly closed in] I called upon the Lord and cried to my God; He heard my voice out of His temple (heavenly dwelling place), and my cry came before Him, into His [very] ears. Notice how he describes his feelings when everything is going wrong. “the torrents of ruin terrified me” When tragedy strikes we know the pain and the storm of emotions that flood over us. It can all seem too much. When we have faith, what comes out of our mouth is creating answers and leading us to help. Out of our humanity we will say, “It’s all too much, Why God? It’s not fair. I want to die.” We have all been there. If you haven’t just wait a while! But when we have faith we say like David, “I feel really bad BUT God is my Rock, my Fortress, and my Deliverer; my God, my keen and firm Strength in Whom I will trust and take refuge. We will go through it sometimes, but don’t go through it alone. God loves you and He wants to be there for you. He is the great healer. Jesus came to heal the broken hearted. God is never the source of our pain, He is always the answer, the rescuer. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 1. What kind of circumstances are a challenge to your faith? 2. How can the body of believers around you be a help to you at a time like that? 3. Is it normal to have doubts at times? 4. What do you think Paul meant when he said Fight the good fight of faith? 1 Tim 6:12 5. Is your faith grounded in God’s word AND connection to the body of believers?